MarmaladeRose: May 2010

Monday, 31 May 2010

Whitby Weekend

Hello again, here I am with my new chum James Cook. Actually I didn't realise Wonderful Man had me in this photo, I was too busy looking at this...

Very pretty eh?
This is Whitby on the East coast of England.
If you look carefully just above the houses you can see the 99 steps up to the Abbey ruins.
Would you like to climb up them?
No!
Just as well I did it for you then isn't it.

We chose to climb the steps earlyish in the morning before it got to warm and busy.

There he is WM, half man, half mountain goat.

Obviously I could have dashed past him but I had to keep stopping to take photos for you lot.

thank goodness.

99 steps is a lot of huffing and puffing.

But well worth it when you get to the top.

Looking left inland and then...

right to the sea.

Now we're at the top lets go and take a look at Whitby Abbey, destroyed by the Germans during the war.

What goes up must come down.

back at the bottom.

The Duke of York pub where we had our evening meal looking out over the harbour..

Lots of little shops for us to look at, I think we should concentrate on the important ones.

This one is a must if you visit Whitby. The Shepherds Purse.
It's full of the most beeeeeeaaaaaauuuuuuutiful things. Velvet flowers, gorgeous soaps, the most feminine floaty clothes, ribbons and lace, jewellery, bags all manner of scrumptiousness. OH yeah and they sell whole foods too. I did ask if I could take photos but unfortunately they said no.

The next thing I need to show you is Bobbins yarn shop in the old Wesley Hall.

there are also a few antiques mingled in with yarn, but we won't bother ourselves with them.

the colours, the textures, the huge hanks!

Hmmmm yarny goodness.

Time for some fresh air me thinks. How about a walk along the harbour walls.

WM kindly asks if I would like to climb to the top of the lighthouse.

I politely decline, after all I have the pressing business of cards to write.

WM had a cracking view from the top.
There I am on the first white bench, scribbling away.

The far end of the pier

I really didn't enjoy walking along here as I could see between the gaps in the planks!

and then we had to turn around and go back.

This is a smaller version of Captain Cooks famous ship the Endeavour.
.

Enough fresh air, time for more shopping. Fabric shopping!

This is Judiths Fabrics on Brunswick Street.

floor to ceiling with haberdashery goodness.

all very neatly stacked and ordered

buttons, buttons and more buttons.

the lovely lady herself, very helpful and oh soooo tidy!

Back outside again. Let me introduce you to Elizabeth the steam bus! Vernon her owner and driver is potty about steam engines. In fact Vernon is quite famous in a very anonymous way. He drives the stream train at the beginning of the TV programme 'The Royal' and he drove the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films.

Elizabeth herself is rather special. The government changed the road traffic act for her back in 2005. Apparently all road vehicles have to have their exhausts at the back but Elizabeth's is at the front. So they changed it for steam buses, of which she is the only one.

Aaaah... ll.45pm and we're still sat outside in our short sleeves. Bliss!

Well that was our weekend in Whitby.

A gloriously hot and sunny birthday treat weekend!
.

Nearly forgot... for those of you who asked... a ginnel is an alleyway.

Love Fi x

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

What a week!

Hello all.

I'm not sure I know where to start, I've got so much to show you!

First things first though. Thank you for the birthday wishes, I had a lovely day. My parents came to stay for a couple of days which made it extra special.

Dad helped me finish off my flat pack furniture although I think I was more of a hindrance to him, teehee. I better own up and tell you how I wrongly marked all of the handle positions on the wardrobe doors so we had to lay each one on the floor and do them all again, oops!

I am so pleased with them, I have a proper grown-up bedroom at last. Wonderful Man says I've got no excuse not to keep it tidy now. Hmmmm... I'm thinking those glass doors need something pretty and lacy behind them to hide the junk.
(No that's not a miniature bedroom door. The wardrobes really are that big, 236cm high!)

Wheeeeeeee! We're on our way through the Dales now to Grassington for a little birthday jaunt. There was hardly any water in the stream that runs along next to the road, it was unusually dry. (It's been so dry here that they've had to pospone the village duck race twice as there isn't enough water to wash the ducks down the river! Don't laugh, it's a very important event in the village calendar. lol!)

Pretty isn't it? This is market square in Grassington.

Plenty of little ginnels

and pretty cottages.

This is the local hardware shop. Easier on the eye than most hardware shops don't you think!

There was also some beautiful gift shops, one called 'The Rustic Rabbit' and another called 'Harlequin'. LOVELY!!!! So why aren't I showing pictures of them? Because I'm a bad blogger and in my excitement I forgot to take photos. Sorry... I'll consider the back of my leg slapped and I promise to try harder next time ; )

Back home again and Thursday afternoon is our 'Not Just Knitting' group. I decided to call it that as 'knit and natter' might sound a little restrictive. Anyway we hold it in the village Meeting Room in the Market Hall once a week and all are welcome.